Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-02-28

| thrown by small SORROWS, does not ouI
cOmmon-sense teach Us that We cannot
stand up against great ones? If We can
not carry pound, can we carry a thons.
and pounds? If we are discomfitted COM
ing into battle with one regiment, 4 brig
ade will cut US to pieces. If we are unfit
to cope with one small trial, won't We be
overcome by greater ones? Ii the footmen
are too much for us, won't the odds be
more fearful against us when We contend
with horses? | thank God that some OF
His dear children have been delivered.
How was it that Paul could say: ''Sor-
rowlul, vet always rejoicing; poor, yet
making many rich; having nothing Yet
possessing all thines?" And David, the
psalmist, scars up into
THE ROCK OF GODS STRENGTH
and becomes thoroughly composed amid
all his sorrows, saying: God is oul
refuge and strength, very present help in
the time of trouble; therefore will not We
fear though the earth be removed, though
the mountains be cast into the midst OF the
sea, though the waters thereof roar and bt
'roubled, though the mountains shake
with the swelling thereof Selah."
But my text suggests something in ad,
vance of anything have said. We must
all quit this life. However sound ouI
health may be, it must break down; how.
ever good our title may be to houses, land,
and estates, we must surrender them. We
will hear voice bidding us away from all
these places. We will have TO start on q
pilgrimage from which we can never come
back. We will have seen for the last time
the evening star, and watched the last sum.
mer cloud, and felt the breath of the
spring wind tor the last time Hands OF
loved ones may he stretched out TO hold us
back, but they cannot-go we must.
About all Others exits and changes we may
tritle, but not about this. Stupendous
moment of life-quitting. Oh, when the
great tides of eternity arise about us, and
fill the soul and surround it, and sweep it
out towards rupture or Woe, all, that will
he the swelling Of Jordan" / know peo-
pie sometimes talk very merrily about the
departure from this life | am sorry to
hear it. But men do make fun of the pas
sage from one world to another. Byron
joked a great deal about it, but when it
came he shivered with horror. Many an
intidcl has sc0iled at the idea of fearing 4
future world, but lying upon his pillow in
the last hour his teeth have chartered with
terror. saw, in Westminster Abbey,
AN EPITAPH
which n poet ordered TO be put upon his
tomb:
Life is n Jest
III, ,l,;rug 1,
] thought ~ once,
But know now il"
thought how inapt that, in a place of
sepulchres, men should Try their with
cisms. A great German having rejected
Christ, in his last moments said: Give
me light, give me hghtn' Oh, we may be
smart with our witticisms about the last
hour, but when it comes, and the tides are
raising, and the surf is beating and the
winds are bowling we will each one, my
brethren, find for himself that il is "thc
swelling OF JOrdanM Our natural courage
won't hold out then. However familiar
we may have been with scenes of mortality,
however much we may have screwed our
courage up. we want something more than
natur, resources. When the north
of death, it will put out all earthly lights.
The lamp of the Gospel, God-lighted, is
the only lamp that can stand in that blast.
The weakest arm holding that shall not
he cOntounded; the strongest one rejecting
that shall stumble and die When the
Jordan rises in its wrath, the first dash of
its wave will swamp them forever We
feel how sad il is for i man to attempt this
life without religion. We see what dole
tul thing II Is for man 10 90 down into
the mistortunes of lite without Christian
sOlacc; but If that he so, hOw much more
terrible when that man comes face To face
with the sOlemnities of the last hour. oh.
if in the bright sunshine of health and
prosperity n man felt the need of some
thing better, how will he feel when the
shadows of the last hour gather above his
pillew? If, in the warmth of worldly
prosperity, lie was sometimes diSmaycd,
how will he feel when The last chill crceps
over him? II, while things were compare
lively smooth be was disquietcd what will
he do in the agOnies Of dissolution? IF,
in the land Of peace in which he trusted,
they wearied him, what will he do
AMID THE SWELLING OF JORDANr'
Oh, rejoice to know that ~ many of
Gods children have gone through that
pass without shudder! Some one said
10 a dying Christian: isn't it hard for
you to get out of this wOrld?' 'Oh, no, I"
he says, "it is easy diving, il is blessed
dying, it is glorious dying aud then he
pointed to a clock Oh the wall, and he
said: "The last two hours in which
have been dying, | have had more Joy
than all the years of my life" general
came into the hospital after the battle,
and there were many seriously wounded.
and there was one man diving, and the
general said: "Ah, my dear fellow, you
seem very much wounded. | am afraid
you are not going 10 get well. "NO,
said the soldier, II am not going
to get we'll, but feel very
happy" Oh, | have seen them,
and 80 have you, 20 out OF this liz. with
out tear on their check! There was weep
ing all round the room, but no weeping in
the bed; the checks were dry. They were
not thrown down into darkness, they
were lifted up. We saw the tides rising
around them, and the swelling OF the
wave. IL washed them of from the cares
and tolls Of life; it washed them on to-
wards the beach Of heaven. They waved
to Us 4 farewell kiss AS they stood on deck,
and hoated down further and further,
waited by gales from heaven, until they
were lost t1 our sight-mOrtality having
become Immortality
Lies duty done, as sinks the clay.
Light from it, load the spirit fiic,
While heaven and earth combine a. s8y.
How ble-t the righteous when he die
WHAT HIGH CONSOLATION
to you that your departed friends were
not submerged in the swelling OF Jordan,
The lsraelites were lust a. thoroughly
alive on the western banks Of the Jordan
- they had been on the eastern banks Of
the Jordan; and our departed Christian
friends have only crossed over-Dot sick,
not dead, not exhausted, not eXtingnished,
not blOtted out, but with healthier respira.
ton and stOuter pulses, and keener eye
sight, and better prospects, crossed over,
their sins, their physical aud mental dis
quiet, all left clear this side, All eteTnally-
flowing, impassable obstacle between them
and all human and Satanic Durglit